That’s how the Magic Club plotline started.
Current IC time: Uncertain.
Akito lies in the shade of one of the water tanks, he dozes in and out of consciousness though keeps a rough estimate of the time in his half awake half asleep mind so as not to be late for class. This kind of summer heat is just perfect for being utterly lazy and relaxed..
Kinnosuke enters the roof door, turning the newly replaced door handle on the outer side. (don’t ask…) In his hand, he carries a pecuillar-looking metallic attache case, the sort that government couriers would use to carry important documents in and chain to their hands. Steadily, he makes his way to Akito’s hiding spot.
In his semi-conscious state Akito catches the sound of some footsteps. At first, figuring they are whispers in his dream he barely reacts to them, however as they become closer and more clear he begins to rouse from his sleepy state.
Kinnosuke stops right before Akito’s feet and announces his presence. He’s not hiding. “Yuuzen Akito-san? My name is Matsuta Kinnosuke, and I wish to speak to you on a matter of utmost importance.” he announcess formally and politely.
Akito sits up and squints as the sunlight streams into his eyes, obscuring his view of the person before him. Blinking a few times to let his eyes adjust, he adjusts his position so that in a split second he could stand in a guarded position.. just in case this odd fellow meant trouble. “Hai, Yuuzen-desu. Utmost importance eh? I should hope so, perfect stranger interrupting me like this.” He then blinks once more, nothing to do with the sun this time. “Ano.. how -did- you find me anyhow?”
Kinnosuke sets his case on the roof floor and opens it. “You will know very soon. As of tomorrow morning, I will no longer be a student of Eriol Gakuen.” he says. “My family’s moving to Great Britain.” Something’s glittering inside the case… “But before I continue and before you label me an idiot…” he says, producing what looks like a wand with a weird cartoonish bird-like design on the other end, “…and before anyone hears this private conversation…” he adds, grasping the wand with both hands. “Sqasqe Itimbalte Wo!” Kinnosuke intones slowly and pompously, and the wand glitters with ethereal light. Suddenly, both Kinnosuke and Akito are surrounded by a large globe of grey, at least three meters in diameter. It’s not apparent what would it look like from outside, but from inside, it appears that all the world just went black and white. “…please don’t run away, I hate it when people get scared. This is the second main reason I couldn’t bring myself to recruit any members for the last year.”
Akito is standing now, fighting stance held firmly. His adrenaline is pumping, but his mind is still working.. a cool calm fills him. He doesn’t attack, but looks ready to do so at any time. “Explain,” he says simply, carefully eyeing the effects of the globe.. constantly calculating the best move to make at any given time.
Kinnosuke relaxes slightly, putting the wand down. “That’s what I came here for. Have you ever heard of the Magic Club, Yuuzen-san?” he asks.
Akito shakes his head, “I don’t generally put much stock in school clubs, never was much one for school spirit.”
Kinnosuke starts a long monologue. Evidently, he’s been preparing for it a long time. “We don’t have a clubroom like we did a couple of years back, and we get almost no funding, especially since I could not recruit any new members for a year. Partly this is my fault, and partly this is the fault of the Angelic Layer club which sucked the blood dry out of every club in school. Still, the club officially exists and you can sign up for it, even though I’m the only registered member left. The Magic Club tradition goes back at least fifteen years, when a student who’s name is now lost to the sands of time brought the Grimwald to school and registered the Magic Club with the student council, as a club dedicated to the study of magic tricks and arts.” He pauses for a breath before continuing.
Akito smirks, “Curiosity and subtle storytelling compel me to ask the what the nature of this Grimwald is..”
Kinnosuke continues his long drawn-out speech. There’s much to tell. “That is the great secret of the Magic Club. Grimwald is a real magical grimoire, written in a script not used anywhere else, and encoded with a cipher. Information contained therein and it’s study were always the real agenda of the Magic Club.” He motions with a hand to the black and white world around. “We’re invisible from outside right now. This is just an example. I could produce something more convincing, but I’d rather not, unless you really, really insist.”
Akito nods, “I’d be a closeminded fool to ignore what’s already been done here. While probably not impossible to duplicate using trickery, there’s no one who would go through so much trouble simply to interrupt my nap.” He then chuckles, “And if they did, they deserve my attention even more than if what you say is true.”
Kinnosuke smiles, and draws a breath before starting on the next paragraph. “Much was learned in these years, even though membership of the club was never high. Things really went downhill when three years ago, Yanagiba Nobuo, then the president of Magic Club, left for Germany, and the other members except me eventually dropped out for other personal reasons. Now, I am forced to leave as well, but I cannot take the responsibility to take this tradition with me.”
Akito arches his eyebrow, “and why is that? It would seem prudent for you to take the grimoire to England with you to continue your studies..”
Kinnosuke shakes his head, “There is a catch. Magic itself is not only just a powerful force, but also something very nearly self-aware. And it wants to stay here. There is no way I could oppose it even if I wanted to.”
Akito nods, “A significant catch, such a powerful force having a will of its own. Does it have an agenda perhaps?”
Kinnosuke smiles, “That, I do not quite know… It was content with us studying it, it would help and it would make fun of us, it would cause the weirdest things to happen… magic is chaos, but is more so. And now it chose you.”
Akito grins and laughs, “Heh, who am I to magic? I’m just a kid trying to have a nap.” His fighting stance had lowered during their conversation, right now he’s standing in a more neutral position since this Kinnosuke doesn’t seem to be posing any threat. At any sort of aggressive movement however he can be up and ready again.
Kinnosuke snickers, “Hey, I’m just as baffled as you are. But that’s what it told me - to transfer the club presidency to you and to hand over the Grimwald. Which is what I came here for.” Well what do you know…
Akito holds out his hands in a barring gesture, “Now hold on here, what’s the catch? You can’t simply be saying, here have this key to ultimate magical power, go forth and run willy nilly through the streets, no strings attached.”
Kinnosuke shrugs, “As far as I can see, there’s a catch… you can’t get out of it. The club is now officially yours and I’m just transferring the club property to you as I should be doing. And even if I tried to do something against this, the magic would prevent me. There’s ofcourse rules that you will have to observe and uphold as the club president, some traditions that will need to be kept, but all of that shouldn’t be too hard.”
Akito snickers, “Sort of like in Ah Megami Sama when someone tries to break the two apart eh? Well, I won’t tempt fate just yet by walking out the door, I’ll take what you have to give. Though I won’t make any promises just yet.”
Kinnosuke smiles, and folds his arms on the chest, the wand cutely sticking out like a scepter. “Even though I said you can’t refuse… I’ll recap a few rules just so you can’t say that you didn’t know. Everything else is in the notes with the Grimwald, down to the designs of the official club uniforms. Rule number one. Magic is a secret and shall stay a secret. The longer you can pass it for parlor tricks, the better. As long as the school and everybody else thinks we’re just fooling around and having fun like the good pupils should be doing, we have official shelter, official status, and even club funding.” He takes a breath before starting on rule two.
Akito nods, not commenting for the moment.
Kinnosuke continues. Boy, does this guy talk lots… “Rule two. Magic shall not be used for personal gain. This rule was broken every now and then, I can’t deny… however, the notes say that when some limit is reached, grave dangers will befall those who break it, and in my memory, nobody was very much inclined to push their luck. It gets pretty confusing even without trying to exploit it for more than just having fun every now and then.” And he draws a breath again. No, you can’t take over the world…
Yuuzen Akito snickers, “Doesn’t seem much different from what the legends say about it.”
Kinnosuke grins and continues once again, “And rule three is that Grimwald itself shall not be copied in any way. The last time it was broken back when Yanagiba-kun was still here, and the resulting copy contained spells that backfired every freaking time, which caused several members to quit. Nasty story…. Well, that’s the gist of it.” he smiles.
Akito nods, then throws his hands up in the air, “Well what the farging hell. Give it here and we’ll just freakin see what happens.” Akito does seem to have a bit of a fatalistic bent to him, fate seems to have it in for him so he usually just rides the waves as they come.
Kinnosuke bends down for the case and places the handle firmly in Akito’s hands. “Good luck.” he says, smiling. Strange, though it sounded like he’s happy to get rid of it throughout the conversation, he appears almost reluctant to give it up. “Oh, one last bit of advice before I leave… Don’t repeat my mistake.” he adds. “It was a boring club presidency because of it.”
Akito nods and asks curiously and almost sympathetically as he takes the case, “Now that the grimoire is out of your hands, does the magic leave too?”
Kinnosuke shakes his head, “No… but I’m losing forever whatever knowledge remains to be discovered in this book. There are some mysteries I will just never know, unless I somehow return.” He pauses and smiles sneakily, “Get some members. Start with girls. The club uniforms for girls are sexy skimpy outfits… Yanagiba-kun wanted to ask Fukyou Toyomiko and Maeki Rika to be members, since we discovered they both have a large magical potential, but the chance didn’t arise when he was here because he was also the president of his school paper, and in the past years I never could bring myself to do it.” he turns away a bit, “too shy with girls, dammit.” he mutters.
Yuuzen Akito’s eyes look a bit pained. Good lord, Rika with magic! Still, it would do a lot to get him in her good books if he let her in on the secret.. it’d also be damn near impossible to keep the secret from her forever, especially since he swore never to lie to her.. “Heh, girls be trouble that’s for sure. Damned if they’re not worth it though..” he says with a grin, “skimpy outfits you say?” he adds thoughtfully, his mind drifting to Eileen wearing a nice…
Kinnosuke grins. “Yes… all witchly-like…” he says, glancing to somewhere behind Akito and waving the wand, returning the world around to normal colors. “Is that a broom there?” Indeed, there’s a broom hidden behind the water tank - or more specifically, a mop. “Watch.” Kinnosuke says, and grabs the mop. “Izadi Aba Mehinamu Eto Kafe Nan!” he intones, and the wand in his hand sparkles. “One hint not in the club notes - if you fly fast enough and at just the right altitude, you can avoid the SDF radars even right over the airbase.” he says, mounting the broom as one would mount a bicycle… without the seat. Ouch… but it looks like he’s used to it. “Have fun.” WHOOSH!… and moments later Kinnosuke is just a dot in the sky, and Akito is left alone on the roof with a briefcase.
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